ABOUT THE SEMINAR

What is the cost of being lied to? How can you tell when people are being dishonest with you? Explore these and other important questions in this eye-opening, fascinating program that dispels myths about lying, and gives you the cold hard facts. You’ll discover that many of the most commonly believed symptoms of lying are not accurate, plus you’ll learn the telltale signs that are significant. You’ll also explore verbal and non-verbal cues that are consistent with deceptive behavior, as well as stress response behaviors that indicate the subject is lying. Whether you are interviewing a prospective employee, hiring a contractor, or simply communicating with your kids, you’ll now have the insights and strategies for detecting deception when it counts.

About the Trainer – Stan Walters
Stan Walters is an internationally recognized expert and author who teaches interview and interrogation techniques, as well as human deception behavior. He has worked with major corporations and organizations, including Walmart, Blue Cross, the EPA, DEA, US Department of Defense, law enforcement agencies and academies in 45 states, and criminal justice training institutions around the world. Stan Walters has been quoted in articles published by ABC News,... Read More

Speaker: So that you understand, it didn’t matter what social position, social status or position of the company, we can all easily fall victim to fraud, fall victim to deception.

So the things that we want to try to focus on while we’re together. First of all, we want to look at the analysis of myths. What are the myths of deception? We miss, as I mentioned, about 50 percent of what happens in front of us, and we miss it for several reasons.

There’s a study that’s been replicated several times. It includes law enforcement, personnel, intelligence, school teachers, and so forth. They take a room for example, and take 50 people; 25 investigators, 25 from general civilian population. They have them sit down and look at some video.

So now, is this guy lying or not? Who was better at spotting the deception? Neither one. They missed about 50 percent. So they said, “You know that’s pretty bad.” The investigators, they’re supposed to be good at this, that’s their job, interviewing people, spotting credibility.

So they reset the experiment. They had people 40-years-old and older, then investigators who had 20+ years’ experience. They sat them down and had them watch a video. Who performed better at spotting the deception? Neither one. They missed 50 percent. Judges performed no better than the general population at spotting when somebody’s lying to them. Lawyers don’t, doctors don’t, therapists, psychologists, ministers, parents, children, men, women, media… Nobody, as a group, gets better than 50 percent, except one group.

Do you want to take a shot or guess who that group was?

Audience: Criminals, mothers, children…

Speaker: Nope. Not moms, not children…

I’m going to show you some data and research that shows this basic change of a narrative oriented conversation will increase the information that you get from someone by 60 percent. Anybody interested in hearing how to do that?

It’s simple. It’s simple, 60 percent more detail in just the way we approach the conversation. Then we’re going to finish up looking at the reliable cues and it’s basically not some of the same cues that you’ve thought of. It’s not the cues that you think are common in deception.

Now, a four-phase interview. A four-part narrative interview. This is what I call “Data mine.” How much information can I elicit from a victim, from a witness, as well as someone I suspect is withholding information?

Perhaps you’re going to settle this agreement within your employees? Perhaps it’s a customer complaint coming in on the customer complaint line or ombudsman for the company. Maybe it’s a negotiations situation.

But, this four-part interview has shown to increase that ability and to maintain cooperation from a victim or witness who’s got information that you need, critical to make a viable decision. So each phase is going to be different. The first objective is we’re going to do an orientation. I’m going to break this down in a little bit in detail for you…

Now, what are the signs of deception? I tell you what, let’s do a little quiz. I want you to call out for me; you don’t have to raise your hand, just call out for me, give me five body language signs of lying that you’ve heard.

What are the body language signs of lying that you look for when you think there are signs of someone being untruthful with you? Just call them out.

Audience: Looking away.

Speaker: Looking away. Okay, do what?

Audience: Changing of the voice.

Speaker: Okay, let’s do body first. Let’s to the body. Do what?

Audience: Twitching.

Speaker: Nose twitching…

Audience: Touching the hand.

Speaker: Touching the face. Give me one more body language cue.

Audience: Blinking the eyes.

Speaker: Blinking the eyes, okay.

Give me five verbal signs that somebody’s lying.

Audience: Stuttering.

Speaker: Stuttering. “R-ums, and uh’s.” Pardon me?

Audience: Laugh.

Speaker: Nervous laugh.

Audience: High voice.

Speaker: High pitch in the voice. I’m sorry, what was the other one?

Audience: A higher volume.

Speaker: A higher volume, higher monolation.

Okay, out of those 10, how many did you get right?

Audience: None. Two. One.

Speaker: One. You got one. Don’t feel bad. I do this every week with law enforcement, intelligence folks and they don’t do much better. Because a lot of it is myths, that’s been passed around and perpetuated.

Now, that’s what I’ve been studying and in looking at some of the training, it’s amazing that some of the things that we teach or the myths that perpetuate our societies; the signs of deception.

Would you like to know what some of those signs are?

Audience: Yep. Yes.

Speaker: Okay, I’ll tell you what, after you come back from a 15 minute break, we’re going to look at one of the reliable signs of deception, how we can pick those out.

We’re going to look at the voice cues and body cues and give you a few more examples, looking at Tony again, and watch some of his cues and see if you can do a better job at picking up deception. And the key is you’re working too hard…